Daniel Levy reports the following at TPM; And the inestimable Juan Cole does as well.

"U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was left shamefaced after President George W. Bush ordered her to abstain in a key U.N. vote on the Gaza war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday.

"She was left shamed...a resolution that she prepared and arranged, and in the end she did not vote in favor," Olmert said in a speech in the southern town of Ashkelon.

"In the night between Thursday and Friday, when the secretary of state wanted to lead the vote on a ceasefire at the Security Council, we did not want her to vote in favor," Olmert said.

"I said 'get me President Bush on the phone'. They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn't care. 'I need to talk to him now'. He got off the podium and spoke to me.

"I told him the United States could not vote in favor. It cannot vote in favor of such a resolution. He immediately called the secretary of state and told her not to vote in favor." (AFP, 1/12/2009)

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/01/12/olmert_slams_condi_advanced_classes_in_chutzpah/#more

Juan Cole:

http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/israeli-pm-ehud-olmert-claims-to-be.html

Dog denies being wagged--not very convincingly

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/news/2009/01/w_house_reports_of_olmert-bush_call_inaccurate.php